43 U.S.C. § 1617 — Revocation of Indian allotment authority in Alaska

(a) Revocation. A Native covered by this chapter, and the Native’s descendants, may no longer obtain an allotment under the Acts of February 8, 1887, or June 25, 1910. The Act of May 17, 1906, as amended, is repealed. An allotment application pending at Interior on December 18, 1971 may, at the Native applicant’s choice, still be approved and patented under the applicable 1887, 1910, or 1906 Act. If so, the Native cannot receive a patent under § 1613(h)(5). (b) Acreage charge. An allotment approved during the four years after December 18, 1971 counts against the two-million-acre grant in § 1613(h). (c) Relocation. (1) An applicant with a valid application pending on December 18, 1971 and still pending October 14, 1992 may, with responsible Bureau of Indian Affairs officer approval and advice, substitute land if the original description conflicts with land selected, tentatively approved, or patented to Alaska or another pre-existing State interest; the substitute is approximately equal in acreage and is State-selected, tentatively approved, or patented; and Alaska’s Natural Resources Commissioner agrees under State law to reconvey or relinquish the substitute to the United States. If the original land was selected but not tentatively approved or patented, the Interior Secretary must also concur. (2) The Secretary must accept the State’s reconveyance or relinquishment unless the land is State-owned inside an Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act conservation-system unit. After acceptance, the Secretary issues a Native Allotment certificate. The Secretary must adjust Alaska’s charged acreage so the State receives neither more nor less than its full entitlement under the Alaska Statehood Act and ANILCA § 906; if Alaska keeps any fee interest, the acreage remains charged to it. (d) Corrected conveyances. (1) If an application is valid, or would have been approved under § 1634 had the land been Federal on December 2, 1980, the Secretary may correct a conveyance to a Native Corporation or Alaska to remove the allotment land, with that recipient’s written concurrence. (2) The concurrence must accept the proposed description and state that the recipient has not granted third-party rights or acted to prevent full title under the 1906 Act and has not stored or allowed hazardous waste there. (3) The Secretary then issues a corrected conveyance and an allotment certificate. (4) No reconveyance document or other title evidence is needed beyond that concurrence and statement. (e) Corporation land revisions. (1) An applicant whose application was pending December 18, 1971 and remained open December 10, 2004 may substitute approximately equal acreage if the original conflicts with Native Corporation-selected or conveyed land or another Corporation interest; the substitute is Corporation-selected or conveyed; the BLM Director has not adopted a final survey plan; and the Corporation or successor adopts a resolution authorizing reconveyance or relinquishment. (2) The Secretary must also find the application valid or approvable under § 1634, after consulting the administering agency that the change will not create an isolated inholding in a conservation unit, and that it will help complete a State land transfer. (3) With acceptable Justice Department title evidence and the Corporation’s reconveyance or relinquishment, the Secretary issues a certificate. The revised allotment remains subject to easements, trails, rights-of-way, and non-fee third-party interests existing on the revision date. (f) Reinstatement and reconstruction. (1) If a person asks to reopen a closed 1906 allotment application or accept a reconstructed copy said to have been timely filed, the United States may seek voluntary reconveyance of land in an application reopened or reconstructed after December 10, 2004, but may not sue a current owner to recover title. (2) A certificate issued after a reinstatement or reconstruction request received or accepted after that date remains subject to Federal appropriations, trails, rights-of-way, easements, and recorded third-party interests, including State-created interests, regardless of when the applicant began using or occupying the land.